Today’s news review looks at coverage of a report on nursery staff.
Early years staff
Today, Friday 17 February, Save the Children called for more qualified early years teachers in nurseries. The charity claims that children without qualified nursery staff are at risk of being left behind by the time they start reception, with boys and poorer children being particularly at risk.
The story has been covered by the Today Programme and in the TES.
Nurseries must employ qualified staff and this is set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework statutory guidance. The Government is supporting growth of the specialist early years graduate workforce by offering early years initial teacher training (ITT) routes that lead to Early Years Teacher Status, providing funded places and bursaries for eligible students and giving financial support to employers to help them release staff to undertake early years initial teacher training.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
All nursery settings are already required by law to employ staff who are qualified to support the learning and development of young children. There are record numbers of nurseries, pre-schools and childminders rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ and the proportion of children reaching the expected learning and development standards continues to rise.
We are investing over £6 billion per year by 2020 into childcare, more than any other government, and creating a workforce strategy to attract, retain and develop the very best staff to the sector. We are also funding early years initial teacher training routes to help increase the specialist graduate workforce.
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